Scavenger's Release
by Darkseasons
Summary: Set after Exit Wounds, but Tosh survived. Jack's trying to hold his team together and save Tosh from the guilt she feels after Owen's death. It's hard, but now the Hub's held by a group of scavenging aliens with a unusual weapon that even Jack can't fight
1. Chapter 1

O.K, this is my first submission so please go gently with me! Its set two to three months after Exit Wounds, but Tosh didn't die. She was badly injured when Grey shot her in the stomach, but Jack managed to push some blood into her intravenously before rushing her to the nearest hospital where they were able to save her. Everything else is the same and Owen did die at the nuclear station. Since then Jack has recruited Martha as Torchwood's medic. Martha met the Dr and Donna during the Sontaran invasion shortly before she was contacted by Jack.

I'd love to hear any feedback - bad or good.

**Scavenger's release**

Captain Jack Harkness took a deep breath and rested his head against the cold concrete wall behind him. Today could have gone a little better. In fact, come to think of it, it couldn't have gone much worst.

His team were sat on the floor in a line on either side of him. Wrists tied painfully behind their backs and ankles bound together with some kind of alien duct tape. In front of them water cascaded down the silver waterfall and into the pool beneath it. This was where they had been sitting for nearly three hours now. Three hours that Jack had watched the alien soldiers taking his Hub apart, three hours of waiting for a chance, any chance to fight back.

They'd been ordered there by a soldier holding a formidable weapon that he had been only too happy to demonstrate on one of Tosh's work stations. The acrid taint of burnt plastic in the damp air was enough to keep them where they were for now. Jack's one vocal attempt to reassure his team had been abruptly stopped when the guard slammed the thick handle of the weapon into Jack's face. The blow was hard enough to knock him to the floor and for the metallic tang of blood to fill his mouth. He gave up and tried to talk to his captors instead. That time the handle was swung straight past his face and into Tosh's. He'd decided to be quiet since then.

She hadn't even cried; just laid on the blood speckled floor where the force of the strike had thrown her. Martha had instantly tried to go to her aid, but the soldier raised the weapon again and Jack had no choice but to signal with a single shake of his head that Martha was to stay where she was.

The only sound was the tread of the soldier's heavy boots of as they ransacked the Hub and Tosh's rapid breathing. Jack was so proud of Tosh. After a while she'd started to wriggle on the floor and still, without a crying out once, managed to sit herself back up against Jack. She'd laid her bleeding head against his shoulder, her hair sticking up at odd angles as the blood clotted and dried on her scalp. In their forced silence the only comfort and apology he could give was to tuck her head under his chin and offer his body warmth as she sat against him and shook.

* * *

That morning Jack had gone to fetch Tosh from her flat as usual. Martha had removed the last stitches from Tosh's gunshot wound a few weeks ago, but it had been a deep injury and Jack knew it would be a good few weeks before she was completely recovered. Until then usually Ianto, or sometimes Jack, was more than happy to pick her up in the morning and take her home at night. Besides, it gave them a chance to talk to her one on one. It wasn't the physical wound that Grey had given her that worried the team, it was the loss of Owen and the intense guilt she still felt for his death.

"Did you sleep last night?" Jack asked as he stared into Tosh's eyes and the dark shadows beneath them.

She shrugged and opened her front door fully for him. As usual she automatically held out her laptop bag knowing that Jack would automatically take it from her. As he shifted it onto his shoulder he looked around her flat. The curtains were still closed and Ianto's careful placement of a draped tea towel over the cutlery draw last night proved that once again she hadn't eaten a thing. Perhaps Ianto wouldn't mind rustling up a proper meal today for lunch. Tosh would usually eat whatever they put in front of her at work, but food at the Hub mostly came out of cardboard cartons and Tosh couldn't live on takeaways alone.

Once she'd locked the door behind them he looped his arm around her waist and led her toward the SUV.

"Just let us know if you need to go home early today. Alright Tosh? Don't wear yourself out."

She nodded and her dark hair slid from behind her ear to cover her face. She irritably pushed it firmly back and for a brief second squeezed Jacks hand as he opened the SUV's door for her. It wasn't much of a response, but at least it meant she was still listening to him.

* * *

Jack crept across the Hub, silently begging each metal grill beneath his feet not to rattle or clank against it's neighbour. At each corner he took a few deep breaths, listening for any sound before moving onwards once more. He may not be as small as one of the girls, but when he really needed to be he could be as light on his feet as Tosh, Gwen, or even Martha.

One more walkway to go. Jack gently reached into his pocket and pulled out the items he had carefully secreted there when he had still been in his office. His target was getting alluringly close now, so close that Jack could smell the gravy.

Ianto had eagerly agreed to make lunch in what passed as a kitchen at the Hub and judging by the heavy bags of shopping he'd carried back from the shops it wasn't going to be beans on toast. After a while the smell of roasting meat filled the Hub and even Tosh smiled as Ianto chased Martha and Gwen out the kitchen with a potato peeler.

Surely Ianto couldn't have heard Jack coming this time? At Ianto's flat Jack never made it, but here with the background noise of the waterfall and all the others moving about it had to be possible. Jack took the final steps into the kitchen and quietly breathed out with relief when he saw that Ianto had his usual pinny tied around his waist.

Jack took one step closer, holding out a shiny gold bell already attached to a piece of wire which would nicely hook over Ianto's pinny strap. Jack's finger held the bells clanger so that it wouldn't ring until it was in place. Finally Jack would win their little game and he'd ensure he'd get a suitable reward from Ianto just as soon as they were alone.

"Would you mind stirring the gravy Jack?" Ianto spun around and calmly took the bell from Jack's hand before replacing it with a wooden spoon.

* * *

"I can't move. I've got roast potato poisoning." Gwen leant back in her chair and patted her visibly full stomach. "That was amazing Ianto and the gravy…"

Sirens blazed in the Hub and somehow even with roast potato poisoning they were all at their stations before a stray pea had finished rolling across the table. Jack watched Tosh as her fingers flew across the computer keyboard and she made sense of the data that was flashing up on her screen.

"Major rift activity…trying to locate…" Tosh's finger traced a dot on the screen that was zooming into a map of Cardiff. "It's here, Jack it's here in the Hub!"

* * *

_Please leave me some feedback!_


	2. Chapter 2

Well here goes another chapter. Thanks for all the reviews so far - they were much appreciated. Hope you like this one too.

* * *

"Major rift activity…trying to locate…" Tosh's finger traced a dot on the screen that was zooming into a map of Cardiff. "It's here, Jack it's here in the Hub!"

Ianto looked madly around him. "How can it be…?"

From high above them Torchwood's pterodactyl let out a defiant scream as the rift began to appear on the platform by the sofa and Tosh's work station. Myfanawy dove at the widening patch of shifting lights, talons outstretched, wings folded back, as she frantically tried to attack the thing that she remembered as having brought her to this strange place.

Ianto helplessly waved his arms at her. "Myfanawy, No!" She let out one more furious screech before beating her great wings and soaring back up towards the hole in the wall that she called home.

"Tosh get out of there!" Yelled Jack as he took the steps to her station four at a time. With little regard for her newly healed arm he yanked her behind him and pushed her down the steps where Ianto caught her at the bottom before she fell.

Jack dodged around the widening rift and started vigorously typing on one of the keyboards on Tosh's station whilst opening the control device on his arm and fiddling with one of the controls. "I'm locking the hub down. Arm yourselves. Anything could be coming through."

Jack finished with one final hit on the 'enter' key and just managed to squeeze past the rift before it blocked his path back to the rest of the team. He caught them up, pulled out his gun and clicked off the safety.

Jack turned to watch the rift as it slowly grew to encompass Tosh's computers and half of the sofa. He held his gun with both hands and pointed it directly at the centre of the light and waited. The rifts lights reflected on the water below them and filled the hub with a strange rippling pattern on the walls. Still nothing was coming out of the rift and it wasn't starting to collapse either.

"O.K Tosh?" Asked Jack still without taking his eyes of the rift.

"Fine." Tosh said quietly with a little pain in her voice. "I'm fine." Jack risked a quick glance behind him and saw that Martha was examining Tosh's arm.

Martha finished what she was doing and smiled reassuringly at Tosh. "There's no damage." She left Tosh's side and walked up to Jack. "Well?" She said with the same excitement Jack had seen back when he and Martha had been travelling with the Doctor. "I know I haven't seen as many of these things as you guys, but do they usually hang around this long?"

Jack took a couple of steps closer to the rift, but still held out his gun. It had stopped growing in size now and just stayed there filling the hub with its strange light. There was a light breeze that was moving his hair and it felt warm on his face. He realized it was coming from the rift and he sniffed it wondering if the rift had brought it here from another time and world.

"Something's wrong. Naturally occurring rifts don't last this long." Gwen suggested from behind Jack. "Can't we scan it or something?"

Jack's attention was swiftly drawn back to the rift where there was an intensity of light and then a clank as a sphere no bigger than an earth golf ball fell out of the rift and hit the ground.

"Everybody down!" Jack ordered, grabbing Martha in a rough embrace and dragging her to the floor with him. He positioned his body so that it covered as much of Martha as possible and waited for the explosion he was expecting to come. Five seconds, ten seconds, thirty seconds…Nothing. He could hear the rapid breathing of Martha beneath him and could fell her body, which was braced for pain, starting to relax.

Jack lifted his head and studied the sphere and told the team to stay where they were. It was metallic, a matt silver colour, no symbols, no lights, just a single thin line running right around it. If it was a bomb it was like none he had ever seen.

Suddenly the sphere clicked, lifted to about waist height and then began to split into two.

"What's it...?" Ianto didn't get to finish his questions as seemingly impossible quantities of thick white gas began to pour out of the split.

"Masks," instructed Jack. He turned to ensure that Martha was on her feet, but found she was already lost in the white smoke. Somewhere on the floor beneath him she was starting to cough. He dropped to his knees and reached out for where he remembered leaving her. He felt her coat and began trying to pull her away, but when he tried to see where the rest of the team were he could see nothing.

He went to call out their names, but his voice stuck in his throat and his lungs heaved as the poisoned gas filled them. He got to his feet and spun around. Where was the rift? Which direction was that dam sphere in? He walked forward starting to stumble. If he could just breathe. If he could just shut the dam thing down. He felt so dizzy and then somehow, as he took one more desperate step towards where he thought the sphere was, the floor seemed to disappear and he fell forward, downwards, arms flailing until he hit water and started to sink.

Wrong direction. He'd gone the wrong way. Water rushed up his nose and try as he might he couldn't stop his lungs dragging in water as he coughed face down in the pool at the bottom of the hub. The world was going black and he didn't even seem to have enough energy to turn himself over. His chest seared in pain and Jack remembered.

* * *

It was a curious feeling, being buried alive. The weight of the soil on his chest as it was shovelled on him reminded him of his childhood home and Grey. They'd bury each other in the sand and add a tail and fins and sometimes tentacles until Mum or Dad would come and pretend to be scared by the great sea monster that had been washed up on the beach. The soil felt like the sand, damp and heavy. It was starting to settle into gaps between his arms and body, and there was Grey looking down at him. Only it wasn't Grey, not the Grey Jack remembered from the beach. This Grey wasn't laughing.

Captain Jack Harkness took one more look at the sky and closed his eyes tight. This was his penance for letting go of his little brother's hand, but he didn't want to spend almost an eternity with soil in his eyes. Soil thudded down on his face and for a while it just rolled off. It tickled and he wished he could brush it off, but his arms were now too weighted down to move. Then the damp weight covered his ears and the sound of the world became muffled. This was it then, one last breath.

Somehow he held on, he didn't want them to see, see him struggle as he knew he would. He was covered now. There was nothing but the pressure of the soil all around him and the feeling of extra weight as another shovel landed somewhere above him. His lungs were starting to hurt; he had to fight them as they tried to breathe in.

He was going to die, he knew this. He was going to die time and time again, but did it have to be with a mouth full of soil? The urge to breath kept on building, the pain just got worst and worst, he couldn't, he had to…

His body took over. His lungs tried to drag in some air. Soil rushed up his nose, and into his chest. Then that made him try to cough and then he couldn't help it as his mouth opened and suddenly he was choking on soil. His whole body writhed with the pain and instinct made him scrabble at the earth around him to try and find a way out. The sensitive lining of his nose burnt with agony and he could feel the end of his fingers bleeding as earth was compacted under the nails and started to push them away from the nail beds. Why couldn't his body have just given up, why did it have to fight?

And then he felt consciousness starting to slip away and he welcomed it. He welcomed it every time it came. It was like a warm blanket that came to take away all the pain and as he lay in his grave for all those years it was all he had to look forward to.

* * *

Here in the water he could feel it coming now, the pain was going to end soon, at least for a little while.

Then there was splashing beside him and a hand grabbed the back of his collar and pulled his head out of the water. "Get him out. I want to find out who he is before we kill him." It wasn't a voice he knew and besides it was too late. Captain Jack Harkness died again.


	3. Chapter 3

Well here we go again – I've been trying to get this chapter written for nearly a week. I've been going through this chapter in my mind every night when I've been falling asleep, I just couldn't get round to extracting it from my brain and into my keyboard. Once again thanks for the reviews so far, please keep them coming because they keep me writing. Enjoy (I hope).

* * *

Then there was splashing beside him and a hand grabbed the back of his collar and pulled his head out of the water. "Get him out. I want to find out who he is before we kill him." It wasn't a voice he knew and besides it was too late. Captain Jack Harkness died again.

"That really was too easy."

The young soldier pulling the man out of the water turned around in response to his comment. "Section Leader Diras?"

"Just get him out and secure him with the others."

He watched as the soldier struggled to manoeuvre the limp body from the water. Every time he seemed to make progress, he'd lose his grip on the man and then have to duck back into the water to stop the man's head from going under again. At one point he was trying to pull him out by two stretchy straps that seemed to be designed to hold up the man's trousers, when both straps suddenly snapped. Diras laughed as the unconscious man simply slid back to where the soldier had found him and the soldier ended up sat on his rump in the murky water.

Another of Diras's men walked past the scene, his red face betraying his attempt not to laugh in the presence of his section leader.

"Get in there and help him, Timon." Ordered Diras. "Though with all the dunking I doubt he'll live anyway."

Between them the man was finally pulled from the water and rolled onto his back. Now that Diras could see the full length of the body he could understand the soldiers' difficulties. Whoever he was, or now that Diras could see the colour of the man's face, more likely whoever he had been, was taller than any of his soldiers, but built nearly as heavily.

Diras walked over and prodded the body with his boot. There was no response. "Check to see if he's breathing. If he is put him with the others, if not drag him somewhere where he won't be in the way."

It was no great matter to Diras. The other prisoners they'd found had all recovered from the gas once treated. At the moment his soldiers were doing fine just searching where ever this was for any likely bounty. If he needed some information later, he'd make sure that one of them would talk.

Diras picked up the gas capsule from where it had fallen after it had dispensed its poison cloud. It was a neat little device, easily used and extremely effective. His only complaint was that it did take some of the challenge out of scavenging. It was another little piece of technology that they had stolen. It came from one of the worlds they visited at random through the artificial rupture in time and space that they managed to create every few months. They usually returned with something of use, and some things, like this one, made future scavenges so much easier.

Jack woke as his chest heaved and dragged in a great lung full of air. For a second he tried to fight it expecting to feel the gritty soil clogging his airways once again. No, he was only breathing in air this time. No soil. At least he wasn't still buried. He must have just died though, so something wasn't going well today.

As if his brain took a second to boot up Jack rapidly began to remember the rift and all that dam gas. When he opened his eyes he also discovered that he was suspended by his arms and looking down at a moving floor as water dripped from his clothes and splashed onto the concrete below him.

He was being dragged through the hub then. His shoulders ached at their mistreatment and so Jack struggled against the men that held him and then found himself abruptly dropped and what he presumed was the nozzle of some kind of weapon held against his head.

"Section Leader!" There was the sound of rapid footsteps coming closer and then he was roughly turned onto his back and found himself looking up at the scarred face of a stranger in what looked like a military uniform. Jack went to try and talk and ask where Tosh, Ianto, and the others were, but instead coughed up a lung full of water into the man's face. He watched as the man sighed, rolled his eyes, and took what looked like Ianto's apron from the shaking arm of another soldier and dried his face.

"Timon?"

"Yes Section Leader?"

"I was not aware that dead men could cough."

"No Sir. I, I mean we, we did check, and he was definitely dead Sir. "

"Strange; he seems to be definitely alive now."

Jack watched the strangers in silence as he tried to take deep breathes and clear his lungs. The men were all wearing the same matt black uniforms with heavy sturdy looking boots. Although their clothing was mostly shapeless, Jack's, even now lusting eyes, could make out well muscled bodies beneath them. These were soldiers then and by the way they were working well trained. They looked pretty human, except for one detail - they were all unusually pale.

The one they called 'section leader' had a long silver scar in the shape of a crescent moon around one of his eyes and another scar running from the corner of his mouth down to the centre of his chin. The skin on that scar was puckered and still red and inflamed on the edges and stood out on the pale skin. His nose was not quite straight and kind of lumpy – Jack guessed it had been broken, probably more than once, and then set badly.

One of the soldiers cautiously approached with a length of tightly woven cord. Where were the others Jack wondered? Then he heard a sound that caught his attention. Ianto clearing his throat. Jack jerked his head to one side to find the source of the noise and could only smile as he spotted his team all alive and as far as he could tell not badly hurt. They were all tied up and were being watched closely, but for now just the fact that they were all alive was enough.

Diras watched the man closely as his soldiers pinned him down and secured his arms behind him. There'd been definite relief in this prisoners face when he had spotted the others they had found were still alive. So either he thought he would have a better chance of escaping if the rest of them were still around or he felt something for these people. Diras discounted the first idea – of the four they had originally captured, three were only women, and the one man didn't look overly strong.

Diras smiled to himself and slipped the gas capsule into one of many pockets for safe keeping. This half drowned man must like, maybe even love these people and as Diras had discovered with the girl it was amazing what people will do to save people they love.


	4. Chapter 4

_I can't believe it's been so long since I last updated this story. I kept writing little bits, but never seemed to get round to putting them all together. Please leave me some feedback - it really does make me smile._

Diras smiled to himself and slipped the gas capsule into one of many pockets for safe keeping. This half drowned man must like, maybe even love these people and as Diras had discovered with the girl, it was amazing what people will do to save people they love.

Time to tidy up, thought Diras. One of the peculiarities of the artificial rupture creator (it was called Arc for short) back on his home planet was that it would only connect to a place where there had been a previous natural rupture in time and space, and then connections could only be made for a period of nine revolutions. After that the scientists had never managed to connect again and so they had learnt the hard way to make sure scavenging teams were back within the time limit. There had been only one exception, once they had found another Arc on a planet where they were scavenging, and by opening a rupture using the new device, they had been able to visit the planet and time period as many times as they wished.

Yes, they couldn't waste time on prisoners. Diras grasped the half drowned man by his hair, yanked his head back, and studied his still dripping face for a second before he gestured to the rest of the prisoners.

"Put him with the others"

As Diras turned to glance at them he noticed some kind of huge device behind them. There were hundreds of thick wires going into and coming out of it. In the centre of all the wires was a column, which was surrounded by a metal frame. It looked like it had been thrown together rather than designed and yet somehow it looked familiar. Diras had seen that same configuration of wires somewhere before, but on which world had it been?

"Section Leader Diras?" Timon and another soldier had finished half dragging, half kicking the drenched man into place and had returned for further orders. Diras looked at Timon for a brief second before stretching out the fingers on his right hand, rotating his right shoulder a couple of times to loosen the stiffened muscles and twisting his body back. Swiftly Diras formed a fist, and using all his strength and the full weight of his upper body as he swung it back round, slammed the same fist into Timon's young face.

Timon's nose shattered and Diras smiled as he felt the bone and cartilage give way beneath his knuckles. The force lifted the stunned soldier of the walkway and back into the water he had so recently pulled the drowning man from. Diras stretched his hand out again and tried not to smirk as he noticed the nearest shocked soldier take one step back. Once was enough though, the others would remember to check for signs of life properly in the future. Besides, as much fun as it was to break another man's nose, it wasn't entirely pain free. Diras's knuckles were already starting to swell and there was even a little blood on some of them where his skin had split from the impact. He grabbed the same piece of cloth he had recently wiped his face on from a nearby soldier and gently dabbed at the blood until his knuckles stopped bleeding.

Timon had surfaced by now, he was kneeling in the water, taking great gasps of air and trying to stifle the rivulets of blood that were pouring down his face and turning the water red around him.

"Guard the prisoners Timon." Ordered Diras as he turned away and walked towards one of his soldiers' who was trying to break into the computer system.

There was the brief and disgusting sound of a man trying to cough up a lung full of clotting blood. "Yes Section Leader Diras," Timon answered angrily from the pool of water.

* * *

Jack tried to relieve his cramped muscles by shifting position slightly. They'd been tied up like this for nearly four hours now and even the soldier with the bloody nose called Timon, who was guarding them, seemed to be getting bored. He kept raising his free hand to his swollen nose and timidly touching the inflamed flesh before wincing and glancing angrily at the scarred man whose face Jack had coughed in and who the soldiers called Section Leader Diras.

Tosh was still leant against Jack's side, but she seemed to have fallen asleep at some point, or at least Jack hoped it was just that she was asleep. The poor kid was certainly having a few months of it. Martha glanced at Tosh occasionally, but she didn't look too worried so perhaps it was just exhaustion or the gas that had caused Tosh to fall asleep and not some kind of head injury from the soldiers blow.

There he goes again, thought Jack. Diras kept looking at the rift manipulator, walking around it, or prodding the wires with the end of Ianto's wooden spoon. Jack really wished the invaders would leave that particular piece of equipment alone, pack up the large mound of items the soldiers had already picked up or ripped out of the Hub and leave them in peace. Only Jack knew the security codes to unlock the rift manipulator, but the prospect of anyone starting it up and maybe opening the rift scared Jack more than he'd like to admit. His memories of the last time it had happened were not exactly rosy.

"That's it! That's where I've seen it before." Jack looked up to find Diras grinning and beckoning the soldiers over who were currently working on Tosh's station. "All the time I was thinking it was something I'd seen on another planet, but it's from ours. This is a rudimentary Arc," he explained. "If we can open a rupture with it we won't have to go back in…" Diras took a small smooth egg shaped device from his chest pocket and ran his thumb over its surface. Some kind of alien numbers appeared and then faded again. "…three more revolutions. It'll be like the girls planet; we can come and go for as long as we want. We just need to open the rupture up."

Jack rolled his eyes and sighed, looked down at Tosh still asleep on his shoulder, took a deep breath, and lifted his head to look straight at Diras.

"I really don't think you want to do that." Jack said calmly before trying to nudge Tosh awake.

He didn't want to risk Tosh getting injured again, but if this Diras managed to open the rift it would be more than just Jack's team that would be hurt.

* * *

On Diras's home world there was a darkness so black that you couldn't tell if you had your eyes open or not and a quietness so silent and still you could almost melt into it. It wasn't on the sun bleached surface, or even in the city beneath it, it was further down than even that. Beyond the constant dull thrum of the massive generators that churned out the power for the city, hidden away from the general populace's diverse chatter and noise, there was a place where the Eminent High Council met and lived. Around this were a maze of rooms and corridors carved from the solid rock and in that place, surrounded by guards, the most important, most prized treasures of the entire planet were safely locked away in the dark.

"You **will** lie with me girl." Councillor Segrat held her against him with one hand painfully tangled in her half hacked off hair, whilst he ran one of his rough and sweaty fingers down her shaking face. "Just accept me now and then I won't have to hurt you again, will I?"

She'd been here before, far too many times before. Too many times the stillness of her cell was interrupted by Councillor Segrat's visits since Diras had brought her to this strange planet. She wondered whether it would be her or Segrat that would give up first, or whether her body would finally succumb to the miss treatment he used to try and get her to agree to his advances and die first.

"Come now little one." Segrat whispered into her ear. "Diras won't come and interrupt us today; he's off scavenging like the dirty little dog he is. Just let me bed you and then I won't have to beat you again."

Power. It's always power she thought. She was caught between Diras and Segrat as they both jostled to control her. Diras had found a way to make her use her empathy skills against those he scavenged from, and now Segrat was determined not to be outdone by his military counterpart by making her allow him to bed her and produce, what Segrat hoped, would be a child with the same empathy skills that she had.

Not that she thought Segrat had much chance of producing a child. He was getting old and his thin yellowish skin was evidence of the less than safe drugs he had abused in his youth. That and a middle age spent as a pampered councillor and the over-indulgement that came with his position had left him with little hair, fewer teeth and nausea inducing breath. He was strong though, despite his appearance. When he beat her, when he held her like he was now, he might as well have been one of Diras's young soldiers. He often ordered her to be left without food for days and it had made her weak, too weak often to do much more than struggle feebly. That and the way Diras controlled her. The pain of her body was nothing compared to the agony she felt in her heart for what he had done and for the guilt of what he had made her do.

Perhaps she should stop fighting, give in and just accept the two men's orders without questioning or allowing herself to imagine or feel anything. Sometimes when she was alone in the dark, curled up on the floor, hungry and sore she had the feeling, a knowledge that she could just let go of her sanity with one little thought. One little thought and lost in a crazed mind she might not know so much of the pain or the guilt. There was this tiny spark still though. Somewhere, in the misery that was being, was some minute little bit that refused to give up completely. Sometimes she wished it would go away, but sometimes, like today, it was all she needed.

"Never." She whispered back, suddenly swinging her bony knee hard into Segrat's crotch. "I will never lie with you willingly. I will never stop trying to get out of here. I'll die first."

Councillor Segrat's yellowish face turned a definite shade of red as he crumpled to the floor, his sweaty hands now thrust between his legs as he tried to ease the pain she had inflicted. He called out for the guards who pulled him to his feet and gently helped him to leave her cell. He turned at the door, holding onto the guards for support.

"You'll regret that Telia. Perhaps I should try Diras's way and have one of those children from your village killed like he does?"


	5. Chapter 5

Sorry it's been a while since I last updated this. I've been finding it hard to find the time to write, but I should have more time now and hope to submit the next chapter much faster.

* * *

Councillor Segrat's yellowish face turned a definite shade of red as he crumpled to the floor, his sweaty hands now thrust between his legs as he tried to ease the pain. He called out for the guards who pulled him to his feet and gently helped him to leave her cell. He turned at the door, holding onto the guards for support.

"You'll regret that Telia. Perhaps I should try Diras's way and have one of those children from your village killed like he does?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, now I come to think about it that's my password for iTunes. I'm always getting that mixed up with the rift manipulators access code. My mistake."

Jack watched as Diras picked up the strange little soft toy mouse that was sat next to Tosh's workstation and quietly twisted it until it was haemorrhaging stuffing from a significant neck wound. Diras dropped it and turned to one of the soldiers who were still trying to break into the rift manipulators control unit.

"I presume he was telling the truth when he said we'd only have three goes at this before that thing, how did he put it, goes kaboom?"

"Yes sir. We've only one attempt left now."

Diras grunted and turned back to the annoying man that Diras was really starting to wish he'd let drown. It wasn't working. None of his normal methods were working. He'd beaten the man till blood ran the steps. After the first answer, which was apparently the date the first 'Barbie' (a weapon perhaps?) went into production and the first interracial kiss on something called 'Star Trek' Diras thought he had even killed him at one point. The trouble was that this 'Captain Jack Harkness' generally seemed to believe that opening a rupture would result in the destruction of the entire planet. No matter what Diras did to him or his team Harkness wasn't going to tell him the code and without it they'd have to leave this rich planet before scavenging it properly.

"Timon!"

"Yes Sir Section Leader Diras." The young soldier answered, regrettably removing his hand from the silky hair of the women with the gap in her teeth.

"Stop playing with the prisoners and signal for the girl to be sent."

Diras watched Timon run over to the transmitter and start to signal for the Arc to be powered up. Usually he would have let Timon start hitting one of the women until this Captain Jack gave him the access code, but one or maybe more of them had set up the excellent computer system that was causing his men so much trouble and that was someone he wanted alive and uninjured. He'd just have to take them all back through the rupture and work out who it was when he had more time.

Jack was kneeling on the floor, he would have been lying on it by now, if it wasn't for Diras's kind assistance to hold him up whilst he was hitting him. Jack glanced back at his team and tried to look reassuring. It wasn't easy with the blood running down his face, but at least it gained a slight smile from Ianto. He wondered who this girl was. A 'girl' didn't seem overly threatening, but then from past experience, sometimes it was the least threatening ones you had to look out for.

* * *

Telia rubbed at her bruised knee whilst she watched Councillor Segrat being led away by the guards. Would he carry out his threat? Would another of her rapidly diminishing village be killed because of her actions? Segrat had never resorted to Diras's tactics before, but maybe she'd gone too far this time?

She dug her nails into her palms and tried not to think of who it be this time. Segrat wasn't like Diras; he didn't always follow out his threats. At least that was one thing she could rely on with Diras, if he said he was going to do something, he always did. It didn't matter if he said he was going to get her a new set of clothes or cut the throat of her cousin before her eyes. Once Diras said it, it always came true.

It was like that when Diras had first captured her. He'd taken a second to crouch down to her level and talk to her.

"You're coming with me girl, you're going to help us."

And she had. Absolutely, entirely, unequivocally, through a mixture of pain and guilt she'd been forced to help Diras and the council.

Telia was brought back to her present situation as the guards returned to shut her door and leave her in the absolute darkness of her cell once again. Just as the door closed and took the last shaft of light with it, she heard the guards saying she was to be starved again as punishment. She sighed and wrapped her bony arms around her already empty belly. How did Segrat expect her to bear him a child if she was dead?

She hadn't been this hungry in years. Her stomach had given up gurgling days ago, now it just alternated from a steady ache to a sharp stabbing pain. Yet she could remember a time before, a time when they'd all been so hungry that even walking around became a struggle. To her young eyes it had been like some kind of terrible dream. All the adults in the village seemed to move so much slower, like their feet had been weighted down with something. The children, usually dashing from dwelling to dwelling, didn't have the energy to play. Every day seemed to be full of nothing, but waiting for the next scant meal.

Were they hungry now? Telia hadn't returned to her village for, as far as she could tell trapped as she was underground for most of the time, nearly three years. Her village had been prosperous when she had left though, that awful year of hunger had been almost forgotten till now.

It was nearly six years then; since they'd been cheated in that trade. Her empty belly could remember the smell of the communal roasting pits that the whole village shared whilst the harvest was collected. It was late summer. The rain was just starting to fall enough again to soak the sun scorched grass around the dwellings and turn it green once more. Telia and the other children didn't have to go to lessons for a whole two weeks as they helped the adults dry the good harvest of crops and carefully store it away in the huts.

Traders had always come to Telia's remote village. They'd bring news of other settlements and those goods that some villages couldn't supply themselves. When the immense carts first came through the woods that ringed the village there had been much celebration. These traders were known to be trust worthy and as usual the head of the village traded most of the food that was more than the village needed for the charcoal to get them through the winter's months.

The woods around the village never made good charcoal. It always burnt so quickly that they'd have to have piles and piles of it around to have enough for a whole winter. Crops, however, grew well and there was always a considerable surplice. It made sense to trade crops for charcoal and when they recognised the caravans the head of the village handed over the crops expecting the payment of charcoal to arrive within the next few weeks as usual. Perhaps they should have wondered why the women sat so quiet on the carts during the trade, or why the usual men they dealt with were all sick with something at the same time, but they didn't want to hold the traders up to much. They had to get to the next village, some five days travel, before the first of the autumns storms.

The charcoal never came. Instead the next group of carts came a few weeks later, telling of the men they had found on the way, heaped in a ditch beside the road. All dead. All with knife wounds. All known to them as fellow traders. Telia often wondered what happened to the women that had sat there so quiet in their carts. They must have had a knife point pressing on their backs from the bandits hidden within the carts for them not to cry out for help.

The bandits had stolen the villages only spare trading goods, it was too late to make enough charcoal and the traders that brought such terrible tidings also happened to have a supply of good quality charcoal with them. There was no guarantee that another group of traders would come before spring so the head of the village had no choice, but to trade again. They wouldn't survive the winter without the charcoal, the poor wood that made such useless charcoal was even worse if burnt in its natural form. Fire ripped through its fibres so rapidly, that as soon as you put it anywhere near a flame, it was burnt and gone within a few minutes.

Telia could remember the head of the village sat next to the fire nearly all night bargaining with the head of the traders. Trying to get the traders to agree to a little more charcoal for the smallest amount of crops possible. Telia must have fallen asleep some point that night, for when she woke in the morning she was back in her own bed and the traders were gone.

"There won't be enough food or charcoal this winter. We're going to have to make do. It'll be alright though, you'll see. Soon be spring again and then we'll grow more. Just have to stick together." Her father had gathered the whole family around the battered old table in the centre of the dwelling with his dusty hat twisted between his gnarled hands and tried to explain why no one was going to have a full belly for while.

And they had got through it somehow. A few of the oldest and youngest villagers didn't make it, but on the most part they coped. There was something that never did come back though, even with traders that they had known for generations, the villagers never felt they could trust anyone again.

It was the following autumn that it happened. That was when Telia's eldest brother got into trouble for lying. She'd been helping to get the thankfully good harvest stored away with her father and brother whilst the rest of the family were busy picking the last of the berries in the woods. Her brother reached to pull her up from the top of the ladder to the top of the store where they were working. It was high up on top of the pile of straw where the roof started to curve in and where the bundles had to be tied into a central pole so that they wouldn't fall down and crush anyone working below.

"You did tie that last bundle in right didn't you lad?"

Her brother, who had really wanted to pick berries today because that was where a certain young girl was also picking berries, grunted and took Telia's outstretched hand and pulled her up with him.

Telia stood still for a moment next to him. He was lying. Where she still gripped his hand she felt a nausea rising up and the certain knowledge that he wasn't telling the truth. There was no doubt in her mind; she felt it as clear as if she was the one not telling the truth. The bundle wasn't tied in properly. It wasn't safe.

"I think Telia's scared up here father." Her brother chuckled "She hasn't let go of my hand yet." Telia quickly let go and glanced down at the concerned face of her father. If the pile should collapse it would fall right down on him and Telia couldn't risk that happening.

"Thought you didn't mind it up there? Come down if you want Telia."

"He's lying father. He didn't tie it in properly. It's not safe."

There had been angry words between her father and brother that day. Her father had gone up in her place and made sure the last bundle, and every one placed there before it by her brother had been properly secured. Her brother was still outside completing the long list of chores her father had set him before anyone thought to ask just how Telia knew the bundle wasn't tied in when she hadn't so much as turned round to look at the central post or to have tested the knots and know that her brother had only bothered to loosely wrap the cord around.

"It was when I took his hand. I felt he was lying." She had simply said when her father asked her.

Her father frowned and looked her straight in the eyes. "What do you mean you 'felt he was lying'?"

If only she had never said those words.


End file.
